Deserving
by MinaSeraphina
Summary: A very short, fluffy O/S about Hyde's reaction to seeing his daughter for the first time. 'Never Tear Us Apart'-verse. COMPLETE


_Yes, indeed, I revised this story . I didn't change it much, it's just that I wrote it on my Sidekick while I was at work in Feb 07 and it had more mistakes than I feel comfortable with __J_

He knew he didn't deserve this.

He hadn't done one single to deserve to be this happy.

He had done so many stupid, stupid things.

He'd hurt the people who mattered the most to him all because he was too proud to admit he was wrong, too afraid of being hurt and abandoned to just let go and trust.

But just the same he was here. Now. They had gotten this far and it still amazed him that this was his life.

With her... with them... He vowed to thank God everyday and promised that he would never allow anything to hurt the two precious gifts he had been given.

Steven Hyde would never forget the exact moment the tiny bundle of life was placed in his arms. A tiny, squirming, screaming bundle wrapped tightly in a fuzzy pink blanket.

Everything else around him dissolved and time seemed to freeze. He examined the tiny little hands, almost involuntarily counting fingers and toes.

He looked down at the little plastic bracelet around her tiny wrist:

HYDE, BABY GIRL.

Hyde. She was a Hyde. Part of him, part of his wife. He stared in wonder at his daughter as she yawned widely and stared up at him with an unfocused gaze. She had stopped crying and lay contentedly in her father's arms.

Hyde was not a man of many words and even fewer emotions but God help him if he didn't break down in that moment and cry his eyes out. His heart swelled with a love he only felt for one other person. That person, just having given birth to their daughter, looked up at her husband with tears in her own eyes.

He slowly sank into the chair next to her bed and brought their baby's face close to her mother's.

''Hi sweetie, I'm your mommy... oh, Steven, she's beautiful!'' she whispered, gently touching the little girl's head.

''Just like you,'' he whispered back. He bent down and kissed his wife on the lips, ''You better hold her, I might drop her.''

He carefully set the now drowsy baby on her mother's chest and watched with unshed tears as his beautiful wife and daughter stared into each others eyes and formed their silent and unbreakable bond.

"Say hi to your daddy, baby girl," his wife gently cooed at their daughter as they both turned to face him. His wife smiled widely as the baby gave a soft gurgle.

Husband. Daddy. These were titles he thought he never wanted, thought he didn't need, but now that he had them he couldn't begin to remember why he had felt that way.

He vaguely recalled his mother and father and his own childhood experiences. Very vaguely, it was out of another life.

He would die before he ever let his daughter or his wife feel that pain.

Nurse Kitty Forman, who had silently slipped out of the room as soon as the newborn infant was handed over to her parents, returned at that moment. She hated to break the moment for the new family, she smiled fondly at her second son.

''Steven, sweetie, I have to take the baby for her first bath and check up,'' she looked at the new mother and baby, ''I'll bring her back in about 10 minutes so you can feed her, honey.''

After getting a kiss and a whispered ''I love you'' from her mother, Hyde gently took his baby girl and handed her to his adoptive mother. He placed a soft kiss on her downy soft black curls and allowed Kitty to take her for her bath.

"Hello there, precious, Grandma Kitty is going to give you a bath, and then you come back to mommy and daddy," Kitty said to the baby. Kitty walked out of the room, cradling the new baby girl in her arms.

When they were gone Steven turned back to the woman in the hospital bed. Even now, rumpled, without make up, and having just endured ten hours of hard labor, she was without a doubt the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

She noticed his intense gaze and blushed, ''What is it? I must look awful...''

Hyde just shook his head and sat down on the bed next to her, she immediately gravitated towards him as he pulled her close cradling her head in his hands. He placed a sweet kiss on her lips.

''You are so beautiful. Thank you...''

She looked up at him puzzled, ''For what?''

He took a deep breath, how had he gotten so lucky?

'For everything... for our daughter, for believing in me, for trusting me, for forgiving me, for pushing me to do and to be better, for not giving up on me... I-'' he choked up, embarrassed to be so vulnerable.

But she understood.

She always did, he mused.

She kissed him soundly and buried her face into the crook of his neck.

''I love you, Steven.''

''I love you, Jacks... I love you.''

_AN: I know it's really vague but that's kind of the point. However, this story was written with keeping the whole, sometimes horrible, history of Hyde and Jackie in mind so it's safe to assume that everything from season 8 happened and this happened sometime later. I hope you enjoyed it!_


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